December 29, 2006After a highly partisan and conflictive second year, the 59th Legislature of the Mexican Congress began its third and final year with surprisingly little partisanship and acrimony, especially considering that it was a presidential election year. Both chambers of Congress...

Most important for long-term political stability is the success of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s National Reconciliation and Dialogue Project. This project initiated a series of meetings among political, religious, tribal, and sectarian leaders, and could, under the...

In the last two years, China’s activist foreign aid policy has attracted more and more attention. China responded to the tsunami in Southeast Asia and earthquake in Pakistan with its largest-ever aid packages, and even provided emergency aid to the U.S. in the...

Yesterday's White House signing ceremony of the "Henry Hyde United States-India Peaceful Atomic Energy Cooperation Act," which permits U.S. civilian nuclear cooperation with India, is the culmination of a year and a half of work, and more than its share of dramatic...

On December 18, the Office of the Chief of Staff hosted a Strategy Hour with Jennifer Cooke from the Africa Program and Post-Conflict Reconstruction's Rick Barton and Liora Danan, who completed a 19-day trip to Nigeria. Over the course of their visit, they met with 115...

December 18, 2006
| Bulent AlirizaThe European Union (EU) summit of December 14-15 was preceded by months of speculation about the likelihood of what the EU Commissioner for Enlargement, Olli Rehn, repeatedly characterized as a possible “train crash,’ which would result from EU insistence on...

The United States government should officially recognize the independence of Somaliland, a moderate Muslim democracy in the Horn of Africa. Such an argument may seem counterintuitive at a time when tensions are rising in the region. But I submit that it is precisely because...